Cowboys Pregame Three Thoughts: Wk 10
Having lost their Quarterback, Dallas faces their old friends from Philadelphia at home.
Finally, one of the best rivalries in professional football is renewed this weekend in Dallas. The absolute mortal enemy, those Philadelphia Eagles come calling once again.
This will be the 127th meeting between the two teams and Dallas will be looking for its 72nd win against 55 losses to date. Odds are not great that they can avoid that 56th loss. These days the two teams are headed in opposite directions. And once again they will be starting a backup QB here and Philadelphia most certainly will not consider a merciful approach.
This will also be the 7th meeting between the two embattled head coaches. Based on how 2023 ended, you could argue both were under review for firing, but neither actually did get the walk to the end of the plank. Instead, both franchises decided on stability there, but with new coordinators introduced to the story and in the Eagles case, a few new main characters.
That appears to be a significant difference in approaches. Both teams had to sign their QBs and their star WRs, but only one team used that to also play in free agency and we all know that Howie Roseman is one of the most aggressive GM’s in the sport. He doesn’t get everything right, but he is also not going to wait around and see what happens or cry that he is out of resources. He actually does what Jerry Jones’ reputation suggests: that he will not resist making the organization uncomfortable with moves that shake things up.
We will get back to that in a second.
First, let’s look at the six meetings between Mike McCarthy and Nick Sirianni. Dallas has won four of the six from 2021-2023 and all three of the meetings in Dallas.
However, it is worth noting that we have seen few Jalen Hurts vs Dak Prescott games. Those meetings have Dak up, 2-1. Otherwise, two of the Dallas wins are against Gardner Minshew and one of the Eagles wins was against Cooper Rush.
That meeting, in October of 2022, was his final game filling in for Prescott and it went pretty poorly. However, it is really difficult to suggest we have any idea how that intel and report will affect this game because the Eagles defensive coordinator that night was Cardinals Head Coach Jonathan Gannon. Then Sean DeSai took the job in 2023, was replaced by Matt Patricia for a month, and now Vic Fangio runs their defense. If you think there is some instability in the Cowboys defense, imagine having four coordinators in 24 months.
But, Fangio is one of the best and he has never had a difficult time causing Mike McCarthy’s offense problems. Additionally, the Eagles defense has been remade and seems awfully formidable as they attempt to regain their footing in the NFC playoff race – a spot where Dallas knows they are not.
And now, they get together for a clash on Sunday:
The Eagles are properly more than a touchdown favorite and have not lost a game since September. Dallas did win on October 6th, but that is over a month in the rearview mirror, as well. And now we assume Prescott is gone for the year, most likely.
This one could be a tough day in the making.
But, as always, these are my Cowboys PreGame Three Thoughts: